Wednesday, May 19, 2010

five years

Five years ago today I wrote my first blog post and here I am, 788 posts later, still doing it. Who knew a whim would turn into an ~ahem~ 'institution'. It's not the same blog it was in its heydey, but since then both the interwebs and I have changed. I still love the format and the way it's connected me with so many amazing people. As long as I keep producing artwork and taking photos I suspect I will keep blogging, and occasionally I might even have something to say (!), but I save most of that for Facebook now. (I have a lot of nothing to say on Facebook, too...) I wanted to do something to celebrate this milestone but it's just not happening today, so stay tuned.

My new painting direction isn't happening yet either, but that's because I have a backlog of commitments to clear up first. Soon!

I'm thinking of changing the URL of the blog to my name by just switching the whole thing over, as is, to andreapratt.blogspot.com. The problem with doing it that way may be that I immediately lose access to this URL so won't be able to write a re-direction post after I do it. Has anyone ever done this before? If so, what are the negatives? I know I'll lose a lot of Google traffic, but since I'm still using the Old Blogger template, am afraid to do anything that might also lose the closest thing I've ever had to a journal. Suggestions, anyone?

19 Comments:

wow, 5 years, congratulations! Lovely drawing, (is that the last that you need to get finished?). As for blogging, I'm feeling especially repressed lately, I don't know how to get over it to blog again. Good for you for keeping it up.

Congratulations Andrea.I was going to say..My brain hurt like a warehouse it had no room to spare and there you were one step ahead of me :)

I have been encouraged by you to try more 'stuff'Last month I illustrated an old friend's memoir which he is publishing. I hadn't really drawn a circle for years but I love seeing that you can do anything...so I gave it a whirl. Thanks.

I hope you find a way to keep reinventing yourself like Mr Bowie..that's how he managed to stay relevant since the 60s...ch-ch-ch-changes...most people fear it, but those who embrace it, live forever.

Don't know how long I've been following your blog but there doesn't seem a time in which I wasn't. Thank you...for sharing your life, your thoughts and your stories..I've enjoyed them all and learned a hell of a lot too

5 years! WOW, as i said it just flew right by ;) but it has been a blast! I would create a new blog and put everything there and then keep this one too. I have read so many people lost there old blogger blog doing this... i have the old blogger blog too and i am always afraid to do anything for fear of losing it :Plove the song ;)

Andrea, changing the url over to your name is SO SO EASY! I did mine the other way around. I changed from my real name to a silly un-name, in case I embarrassed myself too badly.

Just go into your Settings and right there on the first page (they call that tab the "Basic" tab), you can see right where you can erase the old name and type in the new name. It changed it immediately, and you don't lose the blog at all. I was amazed because I'd thought about it for years before I found how easy it was. See ya!

Ellen: We should work on each other, me with my OVERSHARING disorder on FB and other peoples' blogs these days. (Not the last drawing -- several more to go.)

Donn: It was a bad move. I have suffered Five Years earworm for the past 18 hours now, even in my sleep. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I keep chipping away at it and have to remind myself that it's OK to be lame because it's mostly visual, not topical, like yours. Yours is way more fun, and I keep hoping you'll return to more regular blogging.

Laura: You're a peach. Thanks.

Kathryn: I am sort of obsessed with that island ecosystem right now. Hope to get it out of my system soon. And I swill try Googling after this!

Paula: Thanks. I am afraid to jump to New Blogger because my blog is so huge that it will probably mess with the template of my earlier posts. Just switching over to Firefox made the earlier ones format weirdly for me.

Helene: And you, too! I don't visit often enough because we have FB now but I love your cheerful artwork.

Melody: Learned? Wow. I always think of myself as the perpetual student so that means a lot to me. We will meet one day!

Val: We are a couple of old farts using the same old template -- yet as young and fresh as ever, right? Right? Hey! Wake up! :)

Brian: It's just that I have an endless supply of pictures to post. Makes all the difference. I used to enjoy your blog. Maybe one day you'll start again.

Helen: It's not that I'm worried about losing the blog but that I'm worried about losing readers when they go to the old URL. If I could save the old URL then I'd just post a link to the new location. But will the old URL still be available to me? Maybe I should test it on my old small art blog? Yes! I might just try that now.

When I switched to fumblingforwords.com I also switched from blogspot to Wordpress. It was really easy to transfer over all of my old posts, and I actually prefer the Wordpress platform to blogspot.

My old blog is still up in blogspot, but I just left it with a "find me here" post on it, and left it there to collect dust. Which probably isn't the best thing (because Google still finds it), but I haven't gotten around to doing anything else with it.

Speaking of which, the way you have your comments set up, I can only comment with my blogspot user name, which means that my name doesn't link to my new blog. You might want to change that for people who use other blog formats. :-)

Heather: I didn't want to embark on a new learning curve just now but may have to as Blogger won't give me my name as a URL! I just tried. :( (No one else is using it or has used it in years. How can I contact Blogger to see if I can have it? They've set it up so that they're impossible to email.) I have changed the comments set up. I think... Give it a try now.

I know it's been an awfully long time since I left a comment here, but I couldn't let this post pass without saying something, having followed your blog almost from the beginning. I was looking back at those early days and I was quite a frequent visitor here back then. But times and people change (in my case, not necessarily for the better) and I rather drifted away. My loss. Just wanted to say I have huge admiration for the way you've kept at it - and not just the blog, the whole thing of making a go of being an artist. Here's to the next five years! :)

I've been "down" all week and am only now re-setting things.Do whatever you feel will work best for you, but please remember that some of us will get the horrid squirlies if you disappear altogether!And yes, hang on to didrooglie til you've set up the new address;that way you can advertise the new URL as a "last post" on this site.

Di: AFter I discovered I couldn't use the URL I wanted I explored various other options and have decided to just leave it for the weekend and rethink next week. Just like Scarlett O'Hara. :) Come back soon!

Andrea, I've been following your blog for more than two of those five years. I'm glad to have gotten to know you. I've also considered changing my blog, maybe migrating everything to Wordpress. BUT like you, I don't want to lose my current blog. It's a dilemma.